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Billboard Review: Whatchulookinat
submitted by: Lisa D.
source: Billboard
Date: August 2, 2002
Whatchulookinat
WHITNEY HOUSTON
Producer(s): Bobby Brown
Publisher(s): Nippy Music/Dangerous & Legit Publishing, ASCAP
Genre: R & B
Catalog Number: Arista 5170 (CD promo)
August 10, 2002
When new material comes along from a quintessential talent, you cross your fingers and pray hard that the artist and their label have the confidence to steer clear of musical trends that belittle their gifts. So it's more than disheartening to hear the great Whitney Houston merely drop in over a status-quo midtempo jam, singing alongside a chorus of generic voices that actually command more of the vocal than the named star. Worse, the song focuses on a "woe-is-Whitney" theme, where she complains about negative attention surrounding her recent erratic behavior: "Messing with my reputation/Don't have a clue what I'm facing/God is the reason my soul is free/And I don't need you to get mad at me." Throwing shade on the folks that put you on the pedestal in the first place is always bad form, and this song—co-produced by husband Bobby Brown and co-authored by Houston herself—comes across like a poor little rich girl whining. That's just boring. Let's hope that the diva takes some needed time to get over herself before her album drops this fall. What a shame.—CT
Note: The reviewer made an error on the song's lyrics and failed to give Whitney credit for her own vocals. The vocals the reviewer says supposedly overtake Whitney's voice are her own vocals arranged in chorus.
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